Sunday, September 30, 2012

ANOTHER NEW ORLEANS GHOST

The ghost of Judge Francois X. Martin:
For ten years, beginning in 1816, Judge Martin lived in a house at 915 Royal Street, just a few blocks from the where the Lalaurie Mansion now stands. It's said that the reclusive Judge Martin lived alone with one male servant. After going blind, he often had to be assisted back home when he lost his way around the French Quarter. Frequent reports suggest that the blind judge still haunts his old Royal Street home, bumping into things at all hours, tampering with the plumbing and opening doors.
The house is now a small B&B, The Cornstalk Hotel, named for its distinctive and well-known fence. The fence came along after Judge Martin entered the spirit world. The legend is that a later owner built the fence for his wife who missed the cornfields of her native Iowa. Another version says it was built for his mistress.
Harriet Beecher Stowe was a guest here when she was inspired to write Uncle Tom's Cabin. These days, guests at the Cornstalk Hotel still report hearing footsteps in empty hallways and say the ghost of the blind judge even bumps into guest's beds at night.
If you are visiting New Orleans, be sure to take a look at the Cornstalk Hotel and the Andrew Jackson Hotel next door, also said to be haunted. The walk down Royal Street to the most haunted house in NOLA, the Lalaurie Mansion.

Saturday, September 15, 2012

Introducing the Voodoo Queen

Although dates as early as 1794 appear in some biographies,
Marie Laveau was probably born in 1801.She was a free woman of color, native to New Orleans, who married
Jacques Paris at St. Louis Cathedral.The famed Father Antonio de Sedella (Pere Antoine) celebrated the nuptial
Mass in July 1819 but did not record the marriage in the parish records until
the following month.

We know that Jacques Paris, sometimes called Santiago Paris,
came to Louisiana from Haiti after the Haitian Revolution and that his marriage
to Marie Laveau lasted only about a year before he died. The "Widow
Paris" then became a hairdresser catering to some of the most influential
French Creole women in New Orleans. She soon took up with Christophe Dumesnil
de Glapion, with whom she had many children, most of whom died as children from
the yellow fever and cholera epidemics that plagued New Orleans.It is commonly believed that Marie was buried
in the Glapion family tomb in St. Louis Cemetery #1, although, like most
"facts" about Marie Laveau, the actual location of her tomb remains
in dispute.

Her home on St. Ann Street was demolished at the beginning
of the 20th Century, but a sign marks the approximate spot where it
once stood.Unfortunately, the dates on
the sign are almost certainly incorrect.

She is perhaps best remembered for her snake, named Zombie,
her dancing in Congo Square, her spy-network, and most of all, her Voodoo. Her
St. John's Eve ceremonies at her cabin near Lake Ponchartrain continued to draw
large crowds for years, with as many as 12,000 attending near the end of her
life. She attended daily Mass at St. Louis Cathedral and was instrumental in
introducing various elements of Catholicism to the Louisiana version of Voodoo.

One of her daughters, also named Marie, is often confused
with Marie the First in many accounts of her life.It was reported by the local press that Marie
Laveau died in 1881, but many people reported seeing her in New Orleans after
that date.

Thursday, September 6, 2012

The following was written by the Chicago-based Chief Investigator for Plains Paranormal and will be posted on their website. Right now, they are having some kind of computer glitch, so I am posting it here for them. I have had the opportunity to work with this group in the past and love this account of their investigation at the Lalaurie Mansion. -T.R. Heinan

The LaLaurie Mansion

Unnoticed amongst a comfortably sized crowd, I moved away
from a pre-Mardi-Gras Bourbon Street.Slowly in barely noticeable increments, the buzz of the street lessened
with each stride, but never really ceased. Surprisingly I found myself
virtually alone dwarfed by the growing shadows cast by an unfamiliar
architecture.Each step took me deeper
into the city’s past.Each step grew
more eerie.Each step led me until I
was before a gray monolith standing sentinel on the corner of two French
Quarter streets.This was a domicile that
symbolized the segment of New Orleans history that was characterized as dark,
seedy, and dangerous.For a few silent
moments I stared until I began to feel what this building represented.Reluctant to admit it then and even more so
now, there was an uncomfortable energy that was palpable if you allowed it
in.The tragedy, barbarity, sorrow,
suffering, pain, and despair began to course through my veins flowing unbridled
into my core. A familiar heaviness
reacquainted itself.The hedonistic
levity of Bourbon Street seemed a thousand miles despite the fact that the glow
of the neon still a few short blocks away pulsed into the nighttime sky
illuminating it with a pinkish-orange glow.And while the allure of Bourbon Street still called, the gravity of the
LaLaurie Mansion held me firmly in place before it.

In a city known for hot spots, the LaLaurie Mansion is
perhaps the city’s hottest paranormal spot.Dating back almost 200 years, the LaLaurie Mansion is believed the most
haunted location in a city where the spirits are fueled by a rich, yet often dark
history.Located in the incomparable
French Quarter of New Orleans, the past is almost palpable.The Lalaurie Mansion stands on the corner of
Governor Nicholls (formerly known as Hospital) and Royal, anchoring the city’s
historic seedy underbelly to the present. While the house changes owners at an
unusually high rate, the constant is an array of ghosts according to multiple
accounts.

The source of these ghostly accounts is almost too horrific
to bear repeating.The principals were
Delphine LaLaurie, a rumored black widow-type, and her third husband, Dr.
Leonard Louis Nicolas LaLaurie, central members of the New Orleans social
elite.Lavish parties for society
members were hosted by the LaLauries and catered by Negro slaves, a practice
common to the antebellum South.But the
sadistic events contained within those thick walls were hidden under the noses
of party goers and would have remained hidden had it not been for a kitchen
fire on April 10, 1834.After initial
attempts to extinguish the flames failed, the fire spread as the firefighters
arrived.The fire was eventually brought
under control.The subsequent inspection
of the premises produced a locked attic door.Concerned that uppermost floor contained remnants of the blaze, the men
broke the door where they were immediately met by the pungent smell of
death.Entering the room, the rescuers
found a dozen bodies of slaves shackled to the wall.Some were dead while others were clung to
life.But the situation was much more
horrific than the confinement and mistreatment of the human beings.Making
the scene even more barbaric was the fact that crude medical experiments had been
performed on the slaves. Even more dramatically, as a vengeful crowd assembled
rapidly seeking instant justice, a black carriage burst through the mansion
gates escorting the LaLaurie’s to a momentary safety.Their actual destination and fate remains a
mystery.

The house became a vile reminder to its horrific past.As a result, the house remained empty for
years falling into disrepair.Instantly
stories of ghostly apparitions were spotted.A white woman with a whip patrolled the above floors.A blood soaked man was seen appearing in the
attic windows.Mangled slaves were
spotted making their way through the mansion.Their screams were audible to those below.Later a wave of Italian immigrants moved into
the neighborhood and occupied the house en masse.Animals were reported to have been mutilated
and butchered in and around the house. Children even claimed to have been
attacked by a woman in white brandishing a bullwhip.Now the mansion has been restored and divided
into upscale residences.Work continues
on the mansion to this day.

So on that still spring Thursday and a similar Saturday, I
was able to conduct an investigation of the building.After review the recordings made from those
evenings, nothing paranormal was discovered.There were also no anomalous EMF fields detected.No EVP’s were recorded. And other than the aforementioned heaviness
and emotionally charged atmosphere of the mansion, I experienced nothing that I
would describe as paranormal.

However, there were some interesting visually anomalies that
were captured on camera.On Thursday
night, I snapped a few dozen photos of the LaLaurie Mansion and nothing seemed
askew in the photos.During my investigation
Saturday night, I began to notice orbs appearing in the photos displayed on the
digital viewer on the back of the camera.Unfortunately, after the investigation I uncharacteristically lost my
camera while transferring into a cab.It was unfortunate because I was really intrigued by the orb activity
that I was witnessing.This was
especially true considering that I witnessed no such activity the night
before.I know that orbs can be
misidentified and are often unreliable, but I felt pretty confident in what I
was witnessing.Then what was very
interesting to me was when I viewed some similar photos that were taken by
another researcher the night before at the LaLaurie Mansion.In the photos were some typical orbs
captured which seemed to validate my experience.In that collection of photos there was
perhaps one of the most impressive photos of an orb as I have ever seen.It had the impression of an energy filled
blue-cat’s eye marble.It was
stunning.According to the person who
had taken the photo, some locals seem to verify our experiences by stating that
orb activity at the LaLaurie Mansion was relatively common.They even were able to make claims about the
best nights of the week to view them as well as the best time of the night.

While I would have liked to been able to have produced more
evidence during my visit to the LaLaurie Mansion, I was impressed with the orb
activity that I was able to witness.The
energy produced by those tragic, sadistic events fueled the orbs that were
witnessed as well as dark emotions that linger around that mansion.The emotive force that emanates from the
mansion is also equally impressive.It
is clear to see why the LaLaurie Mansion is rumored to be possibly the most
haunted house not only in New Orleans, but America.